Ok, so it's a terrible cover, but not, I repeat not, a terrible album. While not exactly lo-fi, the musicianship on the first track, 'Be More Careful', does espouse slacker ethics, but rather than sound lousy and lazy, it actually works and creates an immediacy through its slipshod rawness. Imagine Pavement playing blues / country-tinged rock 'n' roll and you're getting there.
There's a definite vintage kind of classic rock vibe about 'These Things Happen...' but there's also a rough edge and unpredictability that differentiates it from the genre. In fact, there's an almost garage feel to much of the album, and there's a wry humour that pervades the lyrics on this, Vision Through Sound’s sixth LP. Seemingly safe 70s rock stomps are given to sudden detours into the realms of freak out and psych rock, at least during the first half of the album, which showcases a really imaginative approach to song structures.
'I've Forged a Woman In My Mind' starts out as a fairly unremarkable Faces meets the Eagles (un)inspired mid-tempo plod, but bursts into a break one might be more accustomed to hearing on a Dinosaur Jr album. The crazy thing is, it actually works. Sadly, the same cannot be said of 'Watch Me Disappear,' which really is nothing more than a country / folk ballad by numbers and drags badly.
|
I'm finding myself wondering if they shot their load with the opening tracks when the mid-album slump is halted by 'Guest Check Love Song'. It has a vibrant new wave / pub rock feel about it, and owes more than a little to Elvis Costello, and after that things are slowed down for the grungy, gutsy 'Thea' which demonstrates the band’s songwriting and stylistic versatility. As if further proof was needed, 'Your Voice' has a rockabilly / skiffle vibe. With a violin. If I'm brutally honest (and what’s the pint of reviewing if I'm not?) it's not entirely necessary.
The trouble with such eclecticism is that it results in an album that is, it has to be said, rather patchy. There are some decent songs on the album, but they're brought down by the songs that aren't particularly up to much, and it's not far off a 50/50 split. Hey ho, these things happen.
Vision Through Sound on MySpace
|
